Golf

:This article is about the sport of golf. For other meanings, see Golf (disambiguation).

Professional golf

Golf is played professionally in many different countries. The majority of professional golfers work as club or teaching professionals, and only compete in local competitions. A small elite of professional golfers are "tournament pros" who compete full time on international "tours".

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Golf tours

There are at least twenty professional golf tours, each run by a PGA or an independent tour organisation, which is responsible for arranging events, finding sponsors, and regulating the tour. Typically a tour has "members" who are entitled to compete in all of its events, and also invites non-members to compete in some of them. Gaining membership of an elite tour is highly competitive, and most professional golfers never achieve it.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The most widely known tour is the PGA TOUR (officially rendered in all caps), which attracts the best golfers from all the other men's tours. This is due mostly to the fact that most PGA TOUR events have a first prize of at least USD 800,000. PGA TOUR wins can mean endorsement deals, automatically provide the winner a minimum two-year exemption to play in other tournaments, and supply the prestige earned by beating the best of the best. The PGA European Tour, which attracts a substantial number of top golfers from outside North America, ranks only slightly below the PGA TOUR in worldwide prestige. Some top professionals from outside North America play enough tournaments to maintain membership on both the PGA TOUR and European Tour. There are several other men's tours around the world.

Related Topics:
PGA TOUR - USD - PGA European Tour

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Golf is unique in having lucrative competition for older players. There are several senior tours for men 50 and older, the best known of which is the U.S.-based Champions Tour.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

There are five principal tours for women, each based in a different country or continent. The most prestigious of these is the U.S-based LPGA Tour.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Men's major championships

The major championships are the four most prestigious men's tournaments of the year. In playing order they are:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• The Masters
• U.S. Open
• The Open Championship (referred to in North America as the British Open)
• PGA Championship

The fields for these events include the top several dozen golfers from all over the world. The Masters has been played at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia since its inception in 1934. The U.S. Open and PGA Championship are played at various courses around the United States, while The Open Championship is played in the UK.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

At the top level of the professional game the number of major championships a player accumulates in his career has a very large impact on his stature in the sport. Jack Nicklaus is widely regarded as the greatest golfer of all time, largely because he has won a record 18 professional majors, or 20 majors in total if his two U.S. Amateurs are included. Tiger Woods, who is possibly the only contender to Nicklaus' record, has won ten majors, all before the age of thirty. Woods also came closest to winning all four majors in one season (known as a Grand Slam) when he won them consecutively across two seasons: the 2000 U.S. Open, Open Championship, and PGA Championship; and the 2001 Masters. This feat is now known as a Tiger Slam.

Related Topics:
Jack Nicklaus - U.S. Amateur - Tiger Woods - Grand Slam

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Prior to the advent of the PGA Championship and The Masters, the four Majors were the U.S. Open, the U.S. Amateur, the Open Championship, and the British Amateur. These are the four that Bobby Jones won in 1930 to become the only player ever to have earned a Grand Slam.

Related Topics:
British Amateur - Bobby Jones - 1930

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Women's majors

Women's golf does not have a globally agreed set of majors. The LPGA's list of majors has changed several times over the years, with the last change in 2001. Like the PGA TOUR, the LPGA currently has four majors:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Kraft Nabisco Championship
• U.S. Women's Open
• LPGA Championship
• Women's British Open

Only the last of these is also recognised by the Ladies European Tour.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~